Many enterprises have private computer networks within which multiple computers are connected. To access a public computer network, such as the internet, from a computer connected to the private computer network of an enterprise, the computer typically connects to a proxy server which manages and monitors network traffic between the enterprise's private computer network and the internet. Access to the internet through the proxy server in some cases uses credentials for authentication to the proxy server.
In most devices with network connectivity, such as through a wireless or Ethernet network connections, the settings for a network interface can include proxy settings, in which a user can enter credentials to authenticate to any proxy server to which they are connected. To make such authentication information available to applications on the device that communicate over the network, such information is manually entered by the user by navigating a user interface that provides access to the settings for the network interface. The user enters and saves the proxy settings. If the user moves the device to another location and connects to a different computer network, and if that network has a proxy server, the user will enter and save different proxy settings.
The proxy server for internet access typically processes request communicated using the HTTP protocol, and often is called and HTTP proxy server. According to convention, if an HTTP request does not include the correct authentication credentials for the HTTP proxy server, an error is returned by the proxy server to the application that issued the HTTP request. This error is called a “407” HTTP status code. Different applications may handle a 407 status code differently, and may simply indicate to a user that there is no connectivity with the computer network they are trying to access.
If a user has not entered authentication information manually through the settings for the network interface, different applications may behave differently when accessing the computer network.